TY - JOUR TI - Active site geometry stabilization of a presenilin homolog by the lipid bilayer promotes intramembrane proteolysis AU - Feilen, Lukas P AU - Chen, Shu-Yu AU - Fukumori, Akio AU - Feederle, Regina AU - Zacharias, Martin AU - Steiner, Harald A2 - Lemieux, M Joanne A2 - Faraldo-Gómez, José D A2 - Lemieux, M Joanne A2 - Workman, Sean VL - 11 PY - 2022 DA - 2022/05/17 SP - e76090 C1 - eLife 2022;11:e76090 DO - 10.7554/eLife.76090 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.76090 AB - Cleavage of membrane proteins in the lipid bilayer by intramembrane proteases is crucial for health and disease. Although different lipid environments can potently modulate their activity, how this is linked to their structural dynamics is unclear. Here, we show that the carboxy-peptidase-like activity of the archaeal intramembrane protease PSH, a homolog of the Alzheimer’s disease-associated presenilin/γ-secretase is impaired in micelles and promoted in a lipid bilayer. Comparative molecular dynamics simulations revealed that important elements for substrate binding such as transmembrane domain 6a of PSH are more labile in micelles and stabilized in the lipid bilayer. Moreover, consistent with an enhanced interaction of PSH with a transition-state analog inhibitor, the bilayer promoted the formation of the enzyme’s catalytic active site geometry. Our data indicate that the lipid environment of an intramembrane protease plays a critical role in structural stabilization and active site arrangement of the enzyme-substrate complex thereby promoting intramembrane proteolysis. KW - amyloid β-peptide KW - intramembrane proteolysis KW - presenilin KW - PSH KW - γ-secretase JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -